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Snowden, the NSA, getting "Scroogled"; do these various buzzwords making the rounds these days get your hackles up? Frankly, I don't blame you. Personally, I don't have enough "interesting" information to share. And though I lead a rather "regular" existence, I do realize there are plenty of folks that have a few discussions they're rather keep confidential and a few contacts they're rather not out on the public Rolodex. Hey, you never know who's listening or what axe they might have to grind at your expense, right? Fear not, the Blackphone aims to keep you on the grid but stealthy, undetectable, encrypted and anonymous.

Today, SGP Technologies SA, the Switzerland-based joint venture of Silent Circle and Geeksphone behind Blackphone, announced that handsets have started shipping to the device's first pre-order customers. SGP touts the Blackphone as "...the world's first smartphone built from the ground up to maximize user privacy. Blackphone's security-enhanced operating system, PrivatOS, built on Android™ KitKat, provides users protection and control over security issues without the usual compromises.

Wi-Fi security: The included Kismet Smarter Wi-Fi Manager prevents Wi-Fi hotspots from capturing Blackphone users' wireless connection history and other information that could be used to track users' locations or patterns of activity and information about sensitive office or home networks.

Remote wipe and protect: A powerful remote wipe tool gives Blackphone owners further peace of mind in having the ability to control their phone's data from anywhere in the world.

Anonymous Web browsing and VPN: Disconnect Search is the default search provider for Blackphone, offering private browsing protection from invasive Web monitoring by hiding users' IP address, browser cookies and personal information. Blackphone also features Disconnect's Secure Wireless app, which is a smart VPN designed to prevent eavesdropping over Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

Private cloud storage: Blackphone owners can access files in SpiderOak's private encrypted cloud service right from their mobile device, knowing only they have the means to decrypt and access their private files.

This Android smartphone comes with pre-installed privacy and anti-surveillance services, including Silent Phone for encrypted VoIP; Silent Text, for encrypted messaging; and Silent Contacts, for an encrypted contact list. All of these apps are available on iOS and Android if you want to install them on your phone today but they carry each of their own price tags. However, Blackphone comes with two years of these services included in the bundle, in an unlocked device, for $629.

That's a hefty price tag but if you've got to keep it hid, sometimes you have to pay to play, so to speak. The Blackphone sports a 4.7-inch HD IPS display, a 2GHz quad-core processor, 16GB of storage, an 8-megapixel on board HD camera, along with LTE network support.

That's a mediocre at best spec list but with private contacts to chat up and top secret communications to be had, you probably don't want a flashy footprint anyway.